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> I liked the Thomas Moore lawyer. He wasn’t a jerk, and he gave us something
> to think about.
> Perhaps the solution to religious displays on public property
> is to have more of them. Let the deists, agnostics and atheists get off
> their duffs and put up displays too. Here in Washington state there’s a
> minor controversy about after-school clubs on public property that
> propagandize for Christianity. The non-Christers should organize their own
> clubs, and let them fight it out by providing better service kids.
The fundies that fight so hard to put their religious symbols on public property are the same ones who want to make america into a theocracy.. So, its not religious freedom ion the public square they are after; rather they want to control it.. Rather than expecting atheists to retaliate with our own displays, I say they should put these displays in front of churches (take a look at how many churches have these religious Christmass displays on their own property.. very few).. I believe the act of putting these displays on public property is symbolic to the fundies, that they are the power behind our government..
Every time I can recall when we (atheists) did as you suggested, our displays were resented, and stolen on more than one occasion (even after some court decided that all displays would be allowed).. Its a pain, and I believe counter productive (because it always generates animosity toward atheists)..
bobbler
Freethought Society
Thom, it is not the sun's heat that is the problem. It is visible light striking all surfaces, being absorbed and re-radiated back into the atmosphere as infrared radiation (heat). Myhrvold's solution would make the upper atmosphere more reflective allowing less visible light to reach the surface, similar to the effects of a massive volcanic eruption putting fine ash into the atmosphere. The one concern I never hear addressed is that this visible light is also what plants use in photosynthesis providing all food for humanity and most other non-photosynthetic species on earth. We would probably see cooling but also reduced crop productivity at the same time that the human population continues to mushroom. This is not an unsupported concern, but is based on documented effects. In 1815 a series of volcanic eruptions in the south Pacific led to crop failures across Europe in the summer of 1816 (The Year Without A Summer). I would certainly like to see this concern addressed before the proposal gets more air time.
on tuesday's show I tuned in to hear you say that Mitch McConnell's (or was it John Boehner?) picture should be on condoms. I thought that would be a good way to prevent pregnancy because it would kill lead to abstinence. You should run it by Sarah Palin.
MUST SEE...
Helen Caldicott comes out against any new excuse for more nukes. Nukes are not the answer to 'global warming'.
There's a video of Caldicott speaking at Copenhagen below the article:
http://www.truthout.org/1222096
YES!
Thanks to Thom for being on the air this week!
On a related noted Tom, did I hear right that Gayle Norton is going to make a Senate bid in Colorado? James Watt's former understudy at the Mountain States Legal Foundation (Wise Users) Must be pushback against Salazar being Interior Secretary. Think it's connected to Palin being primed for a run in 2012? It would be a repeat of 2000. Didn't Norton lose a Senate bid before Bush nominated her? Spooky stuff and most people don't even know about the "Wise Use Agenda": or the "Sagebrush Rebellion" that started it all.
BTW special thank you to Thom for staying on the radio this week instead of heading off on Holiday Vacation early. As always, very grateful for his insight.
Thanks for having Jayson on from the World Union of Deists / www.deism.com
Regarding health care, why don't we get the Christians to put up or shut up regarding their powers to heal people? If the Bible is true and Christians have the power to heal, then we obviously don't need health care, we just need Christians!
Progress! Bob Johnson
www.deism.com
Mark:
Our USA has a veto on the UNSC so getting the UN to comment honestly on anything we do is not so easy. It's the same with China, Russia, the UK and France.
Lots of people call Hamas' and anyone else's attacks on Israeli civilians illegal, terrorism and so forth. You can start with Amnesty international and go from there. I would expect Thom has said so from time to time, but let him speak for himself. None-the-less, Palestinian atrocities don't excuse Isreali atrocities, either as a matter of law or of justice ... and of common sense.
The Israelis should remember that the Irish fought their English occupiers for 700 years.
(And the Palestinians should remember that Gandhi succeeded far better than Arafat)
The time has come for a third party. Both Democratic and Republican parties are toxic. This health care travesty is bringing both down. We need a third party movement that will be free of the corporate shackles.
And by the way is Rahm Emanuel Obama's Rasputin?
Zero
I suspect it to be an empty challenge on Obama's part.
DRichards,
Fine, I wasn't impressed with what he campaigned on...Just the alternative was unthinkable.
News Alert
02:40 PM EST Tuesday, December 22, 2009
In an exclusive interview, President Obama rejected the criticism that he has compromised too much on health-care reform legislation, challenging his critics to identify any “gap” between what he campaigned on last year and what Congress is on the verge of passing.
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com - http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/RRHKUP/BCTK4/MSGOGL/35BZNN/5MLHK/...
Col. Patton was sending a HOOAH!
Mark,
NATO lost its true raison d'etre with the fall of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Warsaw Pact. It is an organization in need of a mission.
Israel, (I'm Jewish, btw) I wonder what would have happened had David Rockefeller not twisted Latin American arms to secure the vote in the UN for the mandate in '48.
I think any dispassionate look at the Israeli attack on Gaza last year would look just like, well the Goldstone Report, written by a Jew.
"History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake. " James Joyce
@Zero G Woah! What was behind Patton III's thinking? What was his motivation? Was he an anti war activist hippy high off the summer of love and in rebellion? Or was was he depraved and being a smirky military brat?
Thom talked earlier about 8th-grade thinking, and to me this so-called U.S.-Israeli cabal he mentioned soon afterwards amounts to as much. I happen to agree that the U.S. blew its chance to do something useful for Afghanistan long ago, but also let’s not forget that 9-11 was nurtured during the Taliban’s control of that country. Also, several other NATO countries have troops there; are they there illegally, and if so, why has the UN not declared it so? In regard to Israel, why is that some people do not call months of Hamas targeting of Israeli school children during a so-called “truce” with mortars “illegal,” but the Israeli eventual response so? Hypocrisy is something I have a hard time dealing with.
Question:
What do James Hansen, Stewart Brand and Hans Blix all have in common? (And should it cause me to rethink?)
@Food Fascist
In 1968 Col. George S. Patton III, son of the WWII General sent out a Christmas card with a photo of bloodied and mangled "dead gooks." Excuse the graphic truth.
Re: Deism
I have found that Deism comes in many different "flavors". Most Deist I know use the term Nature's God.
Food Fascist - Thank you for the link. What a crazy time this is!
Thom, I believe you're thinking of Trafalgar Square.
Thom just wanted comments on instead of the freedom of religion argument..putting up a Kresh (sp?) that the man who did it was arguing freedom of speech as this was a public forum..I don't have a problem with that..I believe it is when they call for exclusivity..that there freedom of speech ends..just a thot....
@Zero G. What was it that General Patton said in this Christmas Card. We know what vocabulary he left with his parrot who just died only within the last 5 years or so I believe.
I liked the Thomas Moore lawyer. He wasn't a jerk, and he gave us something to think about.
Perhaps the solution to religious displays on public property is to have more of them. Let the deists, agnostics and atheists get off their duffs and put up displays too. Here in Washington state there's a minor controversy about after-school clubs on public property that propagandize for Christianity. The non-Christers should organize their own clubs, and let them fight it out by providing better service kids.